Joel 3

Joel 3 is the third (and last) chapter of the Book of Joel in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible.^[1][2] This book contains the prophecies spoken by the prophet Joel, and is a part of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets.^[3][4]

Text

• The original text is written in Hebrew language.
• This chapter is divided into 21 verses.

Textual versions

Some most ancient manuscripts containing this chapter in Hebrew language:

• Masoretic Text (10th century)
• Dead Sea Scrolls: (2nd century BC)^[5]
  • 4Q78 (4QXII^c): extant: verses 6, 8‑10, 12‑14, 16‑19, 21^[5]
  • 4Q82 (4QXII^g): extant: verses 4‑5, 7‑9, 11‑15, 17, 19‑20^[5]
  • MS 4612/1: extant: verses 1‑4^[5]
  • Wadi Murabba'at Minor Prophets (MurXII): extant: verses 1‑16^[5]

Ancient translations in Koine Greek:

• Septuagint (3rd century BC)
• Theodotion version (~AD 180)

Structure

NKJV groups this chapter as follows:

• Joel 3:1-17 = God Judges the Nations
• Joel 3:18-21 = God Blesses His People

Verse 8

And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah,

and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off:

for the Lord hath spoken it.^[6]

• "I will sell your sons and your daughters": The Hebrew expression does not mean "to sell by the hand of," as it is erroneously rendered by some; but "to sell into the hand," that is, to deliver over into the power of the children of Judah.^[7] Tyre was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, and then by Greek Alexander the Great, who sold "more than 13,000" of the inhabitants into slavery.^[8] Sidon was taken and destroyed by Artaxerxes Ochus, and it is said, above 40,000 of its inhabitants perished in the flames. The like befell the Philistines (see the notes at Zephaniah 2:4-7).^[8] The Persian Artaxerxes Mnemon and Darius Ochus, and chiefly the Greek Alexander, reduced the Phœnician and Philistine powers. Thirty thousand Tyrians after the capture of Tyre by the last conqueror, and multitudes of Philistines on the taking of Gaza, were sold as slaves.^[9]
• "Into the hand of the children of Judah": The Jews are here said to do that which the God of Judah does in vindication of their wrong, namely, sell the Phœnicians who sold them, to a people "far off," as was Greece, whither the Jews had been sold.^[9] Kimchi states, "As the Tyrians sold Jewish prisoners to the maritime people of the far West, so the Jews should sell Tyrians to traders of the far East."^[7]
• "The Sabeans": The Sabeans were the inhabitants of Sheba, at the most remote extremity of Arabia Felix are referred to (compare Jeremiah 6:20; Matthew 12:42).,^[9] a people actively engaged in trade, and related to the Palestinians in the south, as the Grecians in the north. They were a people as far off (or more so) in an easterly direction as the Greeks of Ionia in a westerly; and so Kimchi, "They were far off from their land more than the Javanites (=Grecians)."^[7] Sheba is a country by the Jews reckoned the uttermost parts of the earth; see Matthew 12:42. These are not the same with the Sabeans, the inhabitants of Arabia Deserts, that took away Job's oxen and asses; but rather those who were the inhabitants of Arabia Felix, which lay at a greater distance. So Strabo^[10] says, the Sabeans inhabited Arabia Felix; and Diodorus Siculus^[11] reckons the Sabeans as very populous, and one of the Arabian nations, who inhabited that Arabia which is called Felix, the metropolis of which is Saba; and he, as well as Strabo, observes, that this country produces many odoriferous plants, as cassia, cinnamon, frankincense, and calamus, or the sweet cane; hence incense is said to come "from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country", Jeremiah 6:20; and since the Jews traded with these people for those spices, it is easy to conceive how they sold their captives to them: now these lived at a great distance, in the extreme parts of Arabia, both towards the Indian Sea and the Persian Gulf.^[12]

Verse 16

The Lord also will roar from Zion,

And utter His voice from Jerusalem;

The heavens and earth will shake;

But the Lord will be a shelter for His people,

And the strength of the children of Israel.^[13]

Cross reference: Ezekiel 38:18-22

The victories of the Jews over Antiochus, under the Maccabees, may be a reference of this prophecy; but the ultimate reference is to the last Antichrist, of whom Antiochus was the type. Jerusalem being the central seat of the theocracy (Psalm 132:13), it is from thence that Jehovah discomfits the foe.^[9]

• "roar" — as a lion (Jeremiah 25:30; Amos 1:2; Amos 3:8). Compare as to Jehovah's voice thundering, Psalm 18:13; Habakkuk 3:10, 11.^[9]

Verse 21

"For I will acquit them of the guilt of bloodshed, whom I had not acquitted;

For the Lord dwells in Zion."^[14]

See also

• Related Bible parts: Genesis 15, Isaiah 23, Jeremiah 6, Ezekiel 26, Ezekiel 38, Amos 1, Revelation 16

References

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Joel

Look up Joel in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Jewish translations:
  • Joel (Judaica Press) translation with Rashi's commentary at Chabad.org
• Christian translations:
  • Online Bible at GospelHall.org (ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English)
• Joel public domain audiobook at LibriVox Various versions